Favourite Air India takes the title in the women’s category

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) men retained the title while Air India emerged champion in the women’s section of the National team chess championship on Tuesday.

In the final round, PSPB, coached by D.V. Prasad and with all the Grandmasters — Abhijeet Gupta, B. Adhiban, S.P. Sethuraman and M.R. Lalith Babu — in action, made short work of Air India to record a 3.5-0-5 victory to keep its slate clean, winning all the nine matches. PSPB finished with 18 points.

Indian Railways ‘B’ and ‘A’ teams took the second and third place respectively.

In the women’s section, favourite Air India, comprising WGMs S. Vijayalakshmi, S. Meenakshi, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni, ensured that there were no dramatic twists in the final round when it scored an easy 3.5-0.5 win over a relatively inexperienced Tamil Nadu to finish with 14 points. For the latter, the only consolation was when Vaishali held Bhakti to a draw.

On the second table, defending champion Airports Authority of India posted a convincing 4-0 win over a young AP side to finish second.